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Saturday, October 1, 2016

Kamen Rider Agito Review Part 1

The Overview

Kamen Rider Agito The 30th series of the Kamen Rider
franchise is a fan favorite series that a tone of people gravitate to worse
too. And it's hard to find anyone who doesn’t like this show... well. I'm
getting this out of the way right now I'M NOT a big fan of Agito, I'm not
saying I hate it or anything like that BUT... this show will be nowhere near my
top 5 (maybe even Top 10). Now Agito is a Sequel series to my favorite Kamen
Rider Series of all time Kamen Rider Kuuga BUT really all that it has in common
with Kuuga is that there is a police force, the riders looks a tad bit like
Kuuga and the main monsters for the series the Unidentified Life Forms are now
back, only they're called Unknowns.

SO really it's not really a sequel series but rather a spinoff
of Kuuga is more like it and before I finally start the review I'm getting the
Elephant in the room out of the room right now this was the first rider series
that was written by Toshiki Inoue WHICH... Which I will be a bigger man and say
I do not hate him as much as I used to if only because of people like
Shinichirô Shirakura who keep giving us shitty Taisen movies. I Bring up
Toshiki Inoue because this was regarded as his last true good thing he wrote
before basically Making Faiz over and over again. So with all of that said how
was the 30th anniversary of Kamen Rider, how does this compare to Kuuga and
also, And why do I think this series is just OK? Well time to awaken the soul
with Kamen Rider Agito.

Episode 1: The Warrior's Awakening

Before the show begins text comes up and saying celebrating
30 years of Kamen Rider which is a really nice way to begin a show. The show
properly begins with this ancient puzzle box arriving on a beach which is then
taken by some scientist to get open it to know what's inside. You know you
would think there would be a reason why an ancient civilization sealed
something off with a bunch of locks in the first place you assume they do not
want what's ever sealed to be release, I'm not just talking about Agito either I'm
talking about fiction in general. Despite that debacle we are introduce to our
2nd Rider of the show (but should have had been the main rider for the show)
Makoto Hikawa as Kamen Rider G3. The design of Kamen Rider G3 is based off of
Kuuga which is a Stage Beetle combined here with heavenly armed police armor
which looks very functional and also practical, with also his finishers are
guns (Bullets the Unknowns only weakness... WHO KNEW?)

Now the thing about the G3 suit is that it needs a pit crew
to help the maintaining the armor and the people to help with the suit are
Sumiko Ozawa, Takahiro Omuro, and finally we also have Toru Hojo. OH WHERE DO I
BEGIN WITH THIS BASTARD, he is horrid, wrenched, unfathomable, unpleasant, a
jerk, a douche bag, and a complete Wanker. Like this guy was the main reason
why I did not like Agito, I mean he is up there with like the worst of the
worst like Banno and Micchy like that bad. The reason why I hate him is he is
under handed and does everything and anything to get his way and hardly care
for others in the possess. GAH I hate him so much.

Well besides him and his support team we are then taken to a
college quote on quote "Main Rider for this show" for the show
Shouichi Tsugami (but not really you'll find out why). He lives with the Kazaya
family because he is their house keeper and has amnesia (amnesia a writer's
best friend and the audience most hated part of the show). The Kazaya family is
comprise of Pr. Nobuyuki Kazaya the uncle of both Mana Kazaya the one who can't
act and is a chore to listen to her, and finally the most annoying one of them
Taichi, if I didn't already have enough of a reason to not have kids i found
the answer because I hate this kid! This kid is assigning and he completely
stops the progression of the shows plot and hinders the story, like this kid
annoy me a lot and should have been left out if the show completely and as such
I'm not going to be talking about him at all for the rest of the review.

Back with Pr. Nobuyuki he research people with X abilities
or psychic powers, but having these powers is a curse to have because of the
unknowns. The Unknowns are monsters that attack people with Psychic powers and
who are related by blood because they don't want humans to Evolve. Pretty solid
back story and purpose for the monster of the week in this show, but it gets
screw over latter on in the show, you'll know soon enough. When G3 goes to
fight an Unknown he is quickly defeated by one and then to appear is Kamen
Rider Agito.

Agito's design is a very parallel to that of Kuuga for fact
it's going for an Ichigo and Nigo vibe. Agito's design here is more based off
an Dragon then Kuug's stag beetle design and also gives off this majestic flow
as well with the Gold everywhere on its design. Now Agito also has a Storm form
and a Flame form which comes straight right out of nowhere and is more
frustrating latter on in the show. so that's 2 out of 3 Riders done so far and
Yes 2/3 Riders, this was the first Riders show to have more than 2 Riders in a
series, so let talk about our 3rd Rider shale we.

Our 3rd Rider for the show is Ryo Ashihara after one day in
his swimming team he starts freaking out and goes into the hospitable, but his
body starts to change and lets him become Kamen Rider Gills. I really love
Gills design the design of him makes Gills looks organic and natural and is a
nice contrast to G3 with the mechanic and Agito compare to the normal rider
design we are used to. There is another reason why I love Gills design and that
is because Kamen Rider Gills is a homage to my favorite Anime of all time Bio
Booster Armor the Guyver! If you know me you would know that I am a HUGE Guyver
fan boy and seeing an actual Guyver Kamen Rider suit makes me so, so, so, happy
I just wish that there were a Guyver Super Sentai or Power Ranger suit (OH
YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT >~<)

So that is how the first couple of episodes are for this
show from introducing the large roster of charters in this show, to giving us
new riders and just the quick pasting of the show in general. But it is
manageable, in the begging that is... because after the begging... WELL.

Episode 6: Sorrowful Monstrous Fist

Now come episodes 6 of the show and this is where I star to
have my main problem with the show the pacing. Like the shows pacing is truly
is bad at times, to the point of being horrible as well. Giving you an example
of what I mean is this show would introduce plot points and plot threads early
on... and quickly don't touch them until much later on in the show.

An example I will give is when Agito killed gill's
girlfriend (even though it did not look like it what so ever because it was
from an Unknown) which is then not brought back up again until almost 20
episodes latter. AND ALL OF THAT would have had been easily would have had been
done away with if Agito talked to Gills (personal nitpick here Shuichi says
only about like 10 lines in the whole show as Agito in the suit that is). And
is insistently resolved as well. Or how about in the beginning when Shuichi finds
out he is Agito he starts to act emo in case he could hurts someone which is
what a normal personal would do. Excepted for not even 1 episode he was emo for
about 15 minutes and then stops like... THE HELL!

But perhaps the biggest offender out of all of this would
defiantly be the OverLord! You see he was the being sealed way many... many...
many... a year ago and comes back and is basically a pompous jackass that does
dick all until like the last 20-10 episodes in the show. I'll get to more why
this guy sucks in a bit but believe me he is a crap villain. And that sort of
describes the first half of the show with rushed elements, jackass charters,
and it at felt times slow to watch this show. But you know what was awesome? The
G3-X Arc.

Episode 22: Fateful Showdown

After both G3 fights Gills for the first time Gills the G3
armor is damage beyond repairs, therefore Ozawa decides to build a new Rider
armor called the G3-X. The look of G3-X is basically the same but just with
added armor parts which makes it more ready for combat. Hojou being a douche
nozzle as always wants to build his own advance armor with black jack and
hookers called the V1 suite (Made up of a bunch of remaining metal hero
costumes). that was created by Ozwa's teacher (who also played flash red in
flash man) So Ozwa built's the G3-X armor But it put too much stress on Hikawa
making him not able to use it making him go ballistic and destroying Hojou
armor (and sadly not him). The reason for this is that the AI is too advance
For Hikawa only because anyone else can do it even Shuichi can use it (even
though he is Agito after all) therefore Kathiawar is depressed but he is given
1 last shot to use the G3-X armor and doing so he wins the fight with the
Unknown and is now the proper user of the G3-X armor.

This arc was very great I think. It mainly
focuses on the police charters and them trying to go ahead and make sure the
G3-X armor is able to work. Seeing Hikawa struggle in order to be the proper
wielder was such an excellent charter growth for him that it made me smile when
he did concern the G3-X armor. Same could be said for Ozawa proving her
professor he is wrong and she made the right call for making Hikawa the user.
This was a great arc of episodes and yet sadly it’s a shame this is where the
shows peak. As for the rest of the show well come back next week people.

I am Digi-Ranger and this blog is to keep you updated on the newest Tokusatsu news, and sometimes anime news too, and you can also find my reviews of series and toys, while they may be long they are very informed.

About Digital- Ranger's Blog

I am Digi-Ranger and this blog is to keep you updated on the newest Tokusatsu news, and sometimes anime news too, and you can also find my reviews of series and toys, while they may be long they are very informed.